Tagged: review

In his review of Christian Wiman’s spiritual autobiography, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, Jay Parini discusses Wiman’s emphasis on the importance of faith to a critic. Here is an extract: It strikes me that criticism—systemic reflection on texts, even on life itself—has lost its urgency during the past 30 years or more, […]

In his review of Roy Morris Jr.’s Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America, Justin Beplate discusses Oscar Wilde’s trip to America, and the lasting effect that it had on his writing and personality. Here is an excerpt: Wilde’s reception in America was uneven. If some were bemused by the colourful paraphernalia of aestheticism, others […]

The Core presents a review of Kurt Vonnegut’s Letters, by Keith Miller. Vonnegut is not a writer directly studied in Core classes, however, his influence on the literary world is worth examining. Here is an excerpt: Most of Vonnegut’s early writing is – despite his protestations about “genre-ism” – fairly easy to ghettoise as science […]

On a lighter note, let us explore pronunciation. In his article for The Spectator, Mark Mason discusses the strange but interesting book, How To Pronounce It, written by Alan S.C. Ross in 1970. Here is a sample: It took me quite a while to be sure that the book isn’t a spoof after all. ‘Gone’, we’re told, […]

In his article for the Guardian, Richard Evans discusses the late Eric Hobsbawm’s posthumous collection of essays, and how they reflect the changes in the historian’s views over time. Here is an extract: What Hobsbawm’s Marxism also did, however, was to turn him from a lifelong optimist – while it was still possible for some to think, […]

Sabina Knight writes, in this review, of author Mo Yan’s receipt of a Nobel Prize and the controversy that arisen due this event. Here is a sample: Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for his writing, not for political engagement. This essay thus offers a perspective on his politics based not on a few symbolic […]

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